The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the 23rd that when the Japanese government declared possession of a 'counterattack capability', the US decided to put on hold its plan to deploy medium-range missiles to US forces in Japan.



The United States has been planning to deploy ground-launched medium-range missiles on the 'first island chain' from the Japanese islands to the Philippines in order to close the missile power gap with China in East Asia.



In accordance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) signed with the Soviet Union in 1987, the United States scrapped ground-launched intermediate-range missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 km, and currently does not have a missile with the same range.



China, on the other hand, possesses about 1,900 medium-range ballistic missiles that are within range of the Japanese islands.



Accordingly, the United States withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in August 2019, and hastened to develop intermediate-range missiles against China.



The U.S. Army plans to deploy a hypersonic missile (LRHW) with a range of more than 2,700 km in combat as early as this year, and the Indo-Pacific Command plans to deploy the missile on the first island chain from the Japanese archipelago to the Philippines.



However, as the Japanese government announced on the 16th of last month that it had counterattack capabilities capable of attacking enemy missile launch sites through revisions to three major security documents, including the National Security Strategy, the US reexamined the necessity of deploying US missiles to the Japanese Islands. that you are doing



This is because if Japan possesses long-range missiles to exercise its counterattack capability, it will strengthen its deterrence against China's medium-range missiles.



In order to possess long-distance strike capability, the Japanese government first introduced the Tomahawk cruise missile with a range of more than 1,250 km from the United States, and improved the range of the domestically produced “Type 12 surface-to-air missile” from less than 200 km to more than 1,000 km. It is planned to deploy from 2026.



The Japanese government also has plans to develop and deploy hypersonic missiles with a range of about 3,000 km.



Yomiuri predicted, "If the military balance changes due to China's arms expansion, there is a possibility that the Japanese deployment theory may resurface."



(Photo = Provided by Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Yonhap News)